Leather

“To leather or not to leather” is a question that has been tormenting us over the last years. Thanks to its strength and high resistance to tear and flexing, leather is a perfect material to craft high quality and durable accessories but, as the saying goes, all that glitters is not gold. Conventional leather is, in fact, all but a sustainable material and the chemicals used to treat (tan) rawhide are extremely dangerous for the environment, especially when improperly discharged in the water supply. Therefore, we had to carefully find a solution to craft our belts and wallets that was consistent with our ethical quality vision.

We explored and tested many sustainable substitute materials, such as vegan leather, but unfortunately we couldn’t find an option that was meeting our quality standards. Given the lack of alternatives, we decided not to give up leather but instead to find a leather producer that shares our same values and concerns for the environment. To find the right partner we went to Prato, on the outskirts of Florence, making our leather supplier the furthest away from our headquarters (270 km).

Our Leather

To produce our leather, we first and foremost make sure that no animal is killed for its skin. Our supplier uses exclusively rawhides discarded by the food industry producing meat for human consumption, transforming them into eco-friendly leather and suede of impeccable quality through a traditional process, typical from Tuscany, known as vegetable tanning. This process, which takes several weeks compared to few hours of conventional tanning, relies on tannins from bark and fruits instead of toxic chemicals, such as chromium, eliminating toxic pollution into water waste and ensuring that our leather accessories can be safely disposed of at the end of their life. Sustainability is not the only thing that we love about vegetable tanned leather. This thick leather is, in fact, perfect to craft accessories such as belts and wallets as it is very resistant and durable and its natural look and feel only improves over time, together with its softness.